The Higher Education Teacher and the New Challenges of Teaching in the Context of Digital Technologies: A Socio-Cognitive Approach [O Professor Do Ensino Superior E Os Novos Desafios Da Docência No Contexto Das Tecnologias Digitais: Uma Abordagem Sociocognitiva] [Le Professeur de L’Enseignement Supérieur Face Aux Nouveaux Enjeux de L’Enseignement Dans Le Contexte Des Technologies Numériques: Une Approche Socio-Cognitive]

This article aims to analyze the metaphorical meanings that higher education teachers have attributed to digital technologies in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our qualitative research is a phenomenological study using reports produced by faculty members from nine public universities in the North/Northeast of Brazil on the Google Forms platform as an instrument for the generation of data. The study assumes a socio-cognitive view of language, focused on the theoretical contribution of Cognitive Linguistics, with a conceptual metaphor approach, directed at corpus and discourse. Using the target-domain method to identify metaphors based on the corpus, those with a negative nature, such as exclusion and despair, stand out more frequently. © 2022 Centro de Estudos Sociais da Universidade de Coimbra. All rights reserved.